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BR Class 142 "Pacer"

And lo, vile Pacers did rise,
Leaving naught in their wake but blood and bus substitutions.
Thus did the first doom befall us.
It would not, however, prove the last.

The BR class 142 "Pacer" is a much-maligned class of railbus, created by British Rail by mounting a Leyland bus to a wagon frame. Much worse-riding than even the clapped out 1950s-era DMUs they replaced, the Pacer was the victim of countless news stories and jokes, to the point of people celebrating them coming out of service.

However, the Pacers were originally created as a stop gap during an extremely anti-rail government - and they were only supposed to be used for ~20 years. They carried on long after, though.